Hero celebrates homecoming to community at unveiling ceremony

By peter roper
The pueblo chieftain

Published: February 21, 2014;Last modified: February 21, 2014 05:43AM

Former Army Staff Sgt. Clinton Romesha held his small son Colin on his shoulders Thursday as he listened to a reading of his Medal of Honor citation — words that extolled his bravery in battle on Oct. 3, 2009, in Afghanistan.

Romesha, 32, and soft-spoken, doesn’t seem like the unstoppable soldier in the official narrative. But he was.

“I was a soldier just like any other,” Romesha insisted to reporters before Thursday’s ceremony at the Center for American Values, where his portrait was added to those of other Medal of Honor recipients.

When President Barack Obama put the medal around his neck a year ago, Romesha was candid about torn feelings — that he was being honored for a battle where friends and fellow soldiers were killed.

“Clint left a lot on that battlefield and that’s part of what he carries today,” said photographer Nick Del Calzo, who took the photo portrait that was unveiled. In it, Romesha wears his formal blue uniform, but his face is largely hidden by a broad-brimmed calvary hat. It conveys humility and dignity.

“This is a homecoming of sorts for Clint,” said Drew Dix, the well-known Pueblo native who received the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War. He meant the Romesha family — Clint, his wife Tammy, and their children — lived in Pueblo for five years during his assignment to the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson. They now live in Minot, N.D.

The family was here while Romesha deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 — his third combat tour in his 12-year Army career.

“We have friends here and my kids still think of Pueblo as home,” he said with a smile.

That was apparent as friends came out of the crowd to hug the Romeshas and admire the kids — Dessi, Gwen and Colin. During the family’s time here, Tammy graduated from Colorado State University-Pueblo and also taught at Pueblo Community College.

Combat Outpost Keating was attacked on the morning of Oct. 3, 2009, by a Taliban force of at least 300 fighters. They came with mortars, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades to try to overrun the 85 U.S. soldiers and Afghan Army troops holding the post. They didn’t.

Wounded by grenade shrapnel, Romesha repeatedly crossed the outpost under fire, killed Taliban fighters coming through the perimeter, organized the defense and pulled wounded soldiers out of harm’s way. At one point, he called for an airstrike that killed another 30 of the enemy close by.

His indifference to his own safety and his intense determination to drive off the enemy is why Romesha received the medal.

“It can only be recommended by those who were on the battlefield with you,” Dix noted to the audience at Thursday’s ceremony.

Romesha acknowledged he has had to learn to accept all the attention. He credited older medal recipients with helping him.

“You have to learn how to say ‘no’ because there are a lot of requests for your time,” he said.